[DAWN] The Supreme Court on Thursday accepted for hearing a petition filed by Mumtaz Qadri -- the killer of former Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....
governor Salman Taseer -- challenging the Islamabad High Court's decision to hand him the death sentence.
The hearing today included appeals by the counsel of the self-confessed killer to reduce Qadri's penalty as well as reject the government's plea to include the Anti-Terrorism Act in Taseer's murder case. A three-member bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa presided over the hearing.
Qadri's counsel Mian Naseer said that a trial court ruled a Rs100,000 fine and a double death penalty for his client. He contended that this is a blasphemy case, adding that Taseer had labeled the blasphemy law 'a black law'.
How can terming the blasphemy law and its use wrongful be blasphemous, Justice Khosa remarked today. He added that there is a difference between committing blasphemy and terming the blasphemy law as wrongful.
Qadri's counsel also added that this is not a case of personal enmity but it is about Shariah. Justice Khosa added that Shariat Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court and Federal Shariat Court are empowered to hear such issues.
After these initial arguments, the apex formally adopted the case for a hearing in October.
In its ruling on March 9, the IHC had rejected Qadri's application against his death sentence under the Pakistain Penal Code (PPC) but accepted his application to void the Anti Terrorism Act's (ATA) Section 7.
Qadri, a former commando of Punjab police's Elite Force, was sentenced to death for assassinating former Punjab governor Salman Taseer in Islamabad's Kohsar Market. Qadri said he killed Taseer over the politician's vocal opposition to the country's harsh blasphemy laws.